FLEXIBLE
FLEXIBLE was a proposal in the Word Class Ballot Proposal The proposal stated: Proposal : FLEXIBLE! (proposed by James Cheung and myself) A proposal that makes Demlang an hybrid of isolating and fusional language, and works thanks to a massive category of flexible polymorph words, that can take on different roles thanks to classifiers. Word categories (O = open category and C = closed category) : • O - Polymorph words (a.k.a adjectivo-(ad)verbo-nouns) : a class of multi-task, flexible words that carry concepts. They can take on the role of either adjectives, verbs, nouns or even adverbs - depending on the particle adposed to them (see the next two categories). • C - Auxiliary verbs : a closed category of a few verbs that would convey basic meaning, basic actions (to do, to be, etc...). They could be used on their own, but would still mainly serve as auxiliaries that would enable the polymorph word they accompany to take on the role of verb. • C - Classifiers : similar to how auxiliaries work to "make" verbs out of polymorphs. These basic nouns would mainly serve as particles that enable a polymorph word to take on the role of noun. These noun-classifiers could (preferably) be inflectable, for example according to gender, numbers etc if we come to that, and they could also act as determiners. • C - Adpositions : words that convey grammatical relations between other words, like case etc (could also be inflectable ?) • C - Pronouns : words that can function in place of a noun or for a participants of the discourse (I, you, we, me, mine, him, that, what, which, who, everyone.. etc) • C - Conjuctions : words that helps articulating sentences (and, as, because, or, so...) ~ This makes the Demlang a kind of isolating~ish language with a little bit of fusionness, with only the auxiliary verbs, the classifiers and maybe the adpositions being possibly inflectable. ~ Polymorph words are practical because they are super flexible ! They become nouns when they are accompanied by a classifier, and they become verbs when they are accompanied by an auxiliary. When attached to another polymorph that has already been specified as a noun, they become adjectives, and when attached to another polymorph that has already been specified as a verb, they become adverbs. Simple as that ! ~ Edit : the "numerals" and "interjections" categories have been merged into the Polymorph category. Clarification Amendment Parts of Speech: There are several parts of speech, as indicated in FLEXIBLE and clarified here: * Polymorphs are an open-class of content words, that carry semantic content. They may, optionally, be paired with nouns and verbs to indicate their meaning within the context of the sentence. The pairing is done via word order. They can appear together in an unlimited string of words, in which case they will be subordinate to the last polymorph of the chain in accordance with the winning word order proposal. * Nouns (formerly “classifiers”) are a closed-class of a few basic nouns. They are hypernyms with a very broad meaning. They inflect in number and definiteness, and can optionally be paired with polymorphs to indicate a more precise meaning (i.e. hyponym). * Verbs (formerly “auxiliaries”) are a closed-class of a few basic verbs. They are hypernyms with a very broad meaning. They inflect in tense, voice, and aspect, and can optionally be paired with polymorphs to indicate a more precise meaning (i.e. troponym). * Postpositions (formerly “adpositions”) are a closed-class of words that relate a noun phrase with a verb phrase or another noun phrase. They are a type of particle and cannot be inflected. * Conjunctions are a closed-class of words that relate two phrases or clauses together. They are a type of particle and cannot be inflected. * Pronouns are a closed-class of words that can substitute noun phrases. They are a type of particle and cannot be inflected. Morphological Typology: The Demlang is mostly an isolating language with some exceptions : nouns and verbs can be inflected, via an inflectional suffix. Words cannot take any type of derivational affixes.